MADAM – The fact that the incinerator has been given planning permission from ‘on high’ does not in itself mean that it is either the best solution or the best value for money for Gloucestershire taxpayers – I would argue that it is neither.

The £500million incinerator contract is claimed by GCC Councillor Raymond Theodoulou to save £150million over landfill.

So if we sent 130,000 tonnes of waste yearly to the incinerator, over 25 years that’s £153 per tonne, over 25 years the cost is likely to be pitched at around £100 per tonne at the start, and £200 at the end of the contract.

I don’t have the actual figures because GCC refuse to release them, either to those who will be paying or even to their elected representatives.

There was a very similar incinerator project in Norfolk but their county council decided to pay a penalty of £33million to cancel its contract because disposal costs have come down so much since the project process was started.

Liz Truss MP (Conservative), whose Kings Lynn constituency the Norfolk incinerator was in, and who is currently secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs on the Conservative front bench, stated: “The economic case simply did not add up with Norfolk taxpayers committed to a contract that was charging £105 per tonne to dispose of the waste compared to the market average of £78 per tonne.”

You have to ask how come it didn’t stack up in Norfolk at £105/tonne but it does at GCC at £150-ish/tonne.

Defra recently estimated that by 2020, across the UK we will need to dispose of 18million tonnes of waste a year at current 50 per cent recycling rates and by 2020 we are likely to have an incineration capacity of 20million tonnes (others estimate up to 27million tonnes).

So demand from incinerators will exceed supply resulting in a buyers market and a reduction in disposal costs as a consequence.

It is very possible there will be even less waste due to higher recycling rates.

The Green Investment Bank states 2020 disposal costs to be between £30 and £45 per tonne and the Coventry incinerator is charging Coventry council £30 per tonne today.

So there are benefits of remaining flexible and going to the market for disposal capacity (and this is not just a continuation of landfill as Theodoulou claims) that would save substantially more than the proposed incinerator, which locks us into pre-determined costs for 25 years.

So assume disposing of 130,000 tonnes of waste at an open market cost of £45 per tonne in 2020, compared to a cost of £130 per tonne under the incinerator contract.

That would be a saving of £11million in that year alone, and a further £275million over 25 years.

In my view, paying £33million to get out of the contract would represent good value for money.

Unlike Cllr Theodoulou, who refuses to disclose any justification for his supposed savings, I have used publicly available, up-to-date information and would be happy to provide references.

Chris Harmer

Green Party member

Nailsworth